9/30/13 Talking to a Soldier, seeing Elder Ellsworth & Heidelberg Castle sighting

This week there was a baptism for he Darmstadt 2 Elders (we're Darmstadt 1) and our investigator who was going to get baptized set up another date for the last Sunday in October.

Here's a quick story from a split I told my mission president about.

love,

~Elder Standring

Something that both Elder Swallow and Elder Freitag said that they would like to work on is contacting people.

Just after a member appointment, it was going to be about 8 at night, and we hadn't eaten dinner yet, so I submitted the proposition to them whether to stay out that last hour and eat after planning, or time go in for the last hour. I told them to pray and ponder about it and we chose to stay out and find someone who could really use the gospel. I'm really glad we did, too. I took them to a park and there weren't many people there. Elder Swallow had said earlier that it bothers him when they spend time that doesn't seem effective, so I asked him at that time in the park, what he thought about the situation, and if we should go somewhere else, and he said yes, so we ventured into a downtown shopping area. It wasn't in the main square, but still by the shops and we came to a fountain where there was an army soldier sitting down. I knew we had to talk to him, but I couldn't think of how for a long time, about 5-10 minutes, so we waited, which may have been uncomfortable for the other missionaries, but,again, I'm glad we did, because Elder Freitag also said he had a feeling that we should talk to that man, but he didn't know how. So we waited until I finally asked Elder Freitag how to say something I didn't know in German and I asked the man what the people's attitude towards the army is, and I actually wanted to know and was being sincere and friendly. Then we ended up talking to that man until 9:15 when we told him we had to go in, but there was still more we'd like to tell him about. He took a Book of Mormon and wanted to go to General Conference as well, but he won't be in Darmstadt anymore at that time, so we gave him a card with the church website on it. I'm really grateful for that experience when Heavenly Father taught me better how to follow the Holy Ghost, but also gave me an opportunity to show and teach my fellow missionaries how to as well.

This photo is Elder s Ellsworth and Standring at the station!--[Sorry it may be upside down...hope we can fix that later!]

AND....Yep, I did see the [Heidelberg] castle [having gone there previously while in high school Madrigal Choir and touring Europe], I was on a split with one of the zone leaders in Heidelberg and I saw it from far away. :)
[This is what it looks like...]